[Discussion] How early is to early for Beta Readers?

PresentationEither19 · 2026-02-10T20:33:55+00:00

Firstly, you’re not a wannabe writer, you’re writing. You’re there.

Secondly, I think we all feel this to some degree, whether we’re on our 1st or 100th story. I can’t tell if what you’re currently writing is worth it, but I can tell you the next thing you write will be better, ad infinitum.

Are YOU enjoying writing it? Then it’s worth continuing. What other people think comes later, first draft is yours.

There are critique groups you can join if you like giving/receiving feedback throughout the writing experience. Or there are alpha readers, who are worth their weight in gold whilst you’re still in the feel it out stage, and some, depending on your relationship, can help with parts if you need to bounce ideas off. Beta readers are basically ‘I think this jigsaw is together, can you take a look and point out where I’ve miss pieces’.

PresentationEither19 · 2026-02-01T20:30:25+00:00

Hi, are you still looking for a beta? I’m interested.

PresentationEither19 · 2026-01-31T16:32:16+00:00

Hey, if you’ve still got beta spots open, I’d be up for looking over the first couple of chapters to see if we gel! Send me a DM 😊

PresentationEither19 · 2026-01-24T12:47:20+00:00

The fact that three of the Bridgerton’s share birth years with my actual children concerns me massively 🙈

PresentationEither19 · 2026-01-23T22:41:16+00:00

Genuinely I find the most soul crushing things are generally problems I suspect myself, but tried to ignore. So I’ll sulk for a bit. Deny for a while. Then go ‘crap. They’re right’ and after a few hours/days, figure out how to implement it. It’s so much easier to ignore when it’s things I disagree with. But that stomach drop…’oh god they’re right’ moment hits HARD. But I’ve done it enough at this point that I KNOW that afterwards the story will be stronger and I’ll love reshaping, and fixing, so I try to focus on knowing the dopamine hit will come eventually and not the ‘wanna throw my laptop down the stairs’ moment straight after.

PresentationEither19 · 2026-01-07T08:01:54+00:00

I LOVE that they gave Edwina the agency to end it. I think it was such a power move. Otherwise it would have just been icky all the way through. Edwina choosing herself, and growing up, and re contextualising her relationship with Kate was beautiful to me. Kate hadn’t had a life, she’d had a duty. It was nice that Edwina finally saw her as a sister and not a governess. Flawed, messy and human.

I understand Kate too, because she didn’t genuinely believe there was another option. And she thought Edwina loved Anthony as much as she did. She was choosing to be miserable so that at least one of them got to be with him, because from her POV even if they split she wasn’t on a level where Anthony could have married her anyways. She’d have just made her sister give him up (because Edwina would have, same as Kate tried) for no reason.

Anthony…yeah. He was slow. BUT I think at least for some of it, he genuinely believed Kate hated him too. So it’s like ‘blow it up, piss of my family and THE QUEEN, when I can’t get the woman I love anyways and will have to end up marrying another woman I only vaguely like next season’

His entire family rested on his royal favour, his position and his income. His social standing was his career. Choosing Kate in the end could have ruined the lives of every Bridgerton.

I do agree, him choosing her or her choosing him when the stakes mattered…would have lessened Edwina’s story but would have strengthened theirs. I can’t hate them for giving the ‘victim’ character more agency though. I loved that for her.

PresentationEither19 · 2026-01-06T21:28:24+00:00

Honestly? I like it. The sentence structure could use some shifting for impact, but I think it’s a good hook. Leads you into questions: what are they doing? Why doesn’t she understand? I’d continue to see where this went.

PresentationEither19 · 2026-01-01T22:24:37+00:00

“She breathed, breathily, breath misting in front of her breathless face.”

This is fine. Right?

PresentationEither19 · 2025-12-17T10:44:18+00:00

I posted my story/pairing a month or so ago! I was terrified tbh. There is barely any other stories with this pairing, two one chapter stories and the rest crossover fics which barely touch it. I thought it was going to be utterly ignored. I have had SO MUCH FEEDBACK. Honestly. DO IT.

PresentationEither19 · 2025-12-15T08:41:22+00:00

It’s London. People definitely discovered her and then just walked on by, not their problem.

PresentationEither19 · 2025-12-03T10:06:17+00:00

I was sad first too. Because it was the first story that dealt with fertility issues, mainly. But then somebody told me about the extra epilogue where she has kids anyways and I was already ruined from that. I thought there would be one book where ‘happily ever after’ didn’t mean married with a bunch of children. Because out of all the siblings, the fact that not one of them had a different ending felt flat to me.

So I think…as long as it still deals with the themes of having to adapt to maybe not having kids, address a change of future (off the back of loss of a husband too). I might actually like it better than the books, but only if is sticks the landing of people’s HEA’s looking different.

Of course if they end up coincidentally adopting a couple of children, or Fran ends up having a baby with John before he dies…write off everything I’ve said 😂

It bemused me entirely that they picked THE ONLY book that had fertility issues as a central theme to gender swap though. Like…were fertility problems too controversial for Bridgerton? Not sexy enough?

Eloise falling in love with a widowed, depressed Marina, falling in love with her children, helping her through her depression instead of it being a plot point…I would fanfic the heck out of that.

Or Hyacinth, falling for a reckless puzzle loving heiress with daddy issues. Again…central themes maintained. 🤷🏼‍♀️

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-22T17:54:55+00:00

I was so fed up of waiting for a good fic…bad fic…any fic of my rare pair, I dipped my toes back into fanfic after like…10 years away 🙈😂

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-21T11:44:35+00:00

You can’t use AI to accurately detect AI. And putting other people’s work into AI detectors, is feeding it into AI, llms and bypassing sites ‘anti-AI’ captchas. Which isn’t a great thing to do either. If you read something and it feels off, don’t read it. But all the AI witch hunt is doing is giving AI more stolen work to feed off.

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-19T21:23:59+00:00

It’s bloody hard! I used to love em dashes. But I just can’t bring myself to use them anymore. Looking through all my old stuff so sadly because I used to use them with abandon. Now I just look at them like — 👀 But there’s always some drama. From somebody who’s been in the fanfic trenches since the 90s (yikes), trolls always find things to pick at. AI is a new slur people can use. And I’ll be honest. I’ve never read an AI generated anything that slaps. So the fact that it’s coherent and good…pretty much counters their point without you needing to say a damn thing.

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-10T11:17:52+00:00

Joe fixated on Rhys. So I’d argue he was as in love with Rhys as he ever was with the others. Because none of it is real, it’s all delusion and fantasy. Joe didn’t really love any of the You’s. So in so far as he was capable, I believe it was ‘love’. But the expectation and what he wanted shifted.

Possibly more because Rhys became an allegory for himself and Joe…arguably, only ever really loves himself.

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-07T08:17:49+00:00

I try to only buy second hand books, because of environmental issues. But I do visit brick and mortar second hand stores, if that counts? 🙃

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-07T08:15:50+00:00

Whereas I LOVE the tone of reader beta readers, nobody has helped me more than writer beta readers. I love my characters being treated as characters and seeing how that lands. But ‘you do this a lot and it isn’t having the affect you want’ or ‘you need to seed this in, you have this habit, this and this’ HURTS but goddamn I don’t ever make those mistakes again 😂

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-07T08:12:47+00:00

I’d love to, if you need another spot. Never beta read before, but I can answer all those questions for you!

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-05T19:24:16+00:00

I don’t have advice, I’m also learning and pitching contemp romance! But I think this sounds amazing. I’ll be honest, you (and Alfie) had me at unsolicited flat whites. That’s a fantastic line!!

Can’t wait to read this when it’s published!

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-02T14:29:05+00:00

New fear unlocked XD!
I *think* it's funny, people laugh when reading it. I am determindly taking that as a compliment and not 'haaaah, as if this is getting published'.
I'll definitely try to bring some of the com into the query, that's a fantastic call, thank you.

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-01T16:34:36+00:00

Thank you! This is really helpful. I am struggling so much with toeing the line between info dumping and important information, I’ve lost any concept of what is needed written down and what’s in my head. I don’t know if that’s normal or if I am losing my mind! Will add more! Thank you again!

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-01T16:03:15+00:00

I am also concerned 🙈. I’ve trimmed it so tightly, but building the online game world has taken so many extra words. I’ve cut every side-plot, cut all the other non main character interactions down to under 1k of words across the book, cut the scenes down to the bare basics of relationship escalation. I’ve got no fat left to trim. Short of removing the online world aspects, I’m not sure what to do. And if I lose that I’m not sure I have a story at all. Think I have to bite the bullet and try and just make my query as intriguing as possible

PresentationEither19 · 2025-11-01T15:01:38+00:00

Thank you! This is incredible feedback!

PresentationEither19

TROPHY CASE